Soil-carbon payments initiated for Punjab and Haryana farmers

PIB reported India's first Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) payments for soil-carbon credits: over ₹2.9 crore was transferred to 2,550 smallholder farmers in Punjab and Haryana on 16-17 September, with individual farmers receiving between ₹3,000 and ₹15,000 depending on the volume of verified carbon credits generated from their fields. The payments are part of 'Aadi', a farmer carbon programme run by Grow Indigo since 2019 with technical guidance from ICAR, under which participating farmers adopted practices such as Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), reduced tillage and crop-residue management between 2019 and 2022; the resulting greenhouse-gas reductions and soil-carbon increases were measured and independently verified before credits were issued. The DBT process was initiated by Dr M. L. Jat, Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of ICAR, at an event at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. The programme's enrolled fields are estimated to have saved 45 billion litres of water and kept more than two lakh tonnes of crop residue out of fires, avoiding an estimated 1,000 tonnes of PM2.5 emissions - directly linking regenerative farming practices to both farmer income and stubble-burning reduction, a recurring exam theme around North Indian air quality.